Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for protecting electronic content, such as software or other executable content, from unauthorized use or access in violation of license terms.
Description of the Related Art
Various methods and systems exist for enforcement of electronic content license terms, and other management of digital rights, often called Digital Rights Management (DRM). Various DRM technologies are in use today, depending on different factors such as the content source and type of content being protected. Despite the advantages of existing DRM technology, there remain opportunities to provide improvements, including but not limited to improving the security of systems that rely on the use of hardware identification, sometimes called “hardware fingerprinting,” and increasing the flexibility of DRM in its application to specific installations.
Some electronic content, for example, software, is designed to be installed and used on one or more client devices. It is generally desirable to encourage copying and distribution of software to increase the installed user base as much as possible. At the same time, it may be desirable to prevent the user base from using at least certain features of the installed content without obtaining a license from the software provider or distributor. In addition, it may be desirable to control the number of client machines on which a particular licensed copy may be installed and used with its features enabled. It is desirable to provide these and other capabilities in a robust and secure system for preventing unauthorized use of installed executable content.